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(Iechyd da!: 'Cheers' in Welsh.) Wales is now producing its own whisky, mead, liqueur and wine, and as Carolle Doyle discovers, they are in a class of their own. There are, so it is said, two dragons locked in eternal battle in a cave beneath the earth at Dinas Emrys in North Wales. They were snared back in the mists of time and myth by a pool of mead because mead, the drink of fermented honey, is not only the oldest alcoholic beverage on earth, it is also, so it would seem, the drink of dragons. Mead is still made in Wales. Go to the coast to the little town of New Quay and there you can visit the meadery at the Honey Farm and learn how it is made before moving on to the shop and a tasting of meads. The beeswax rich scent of the meadery is intensified in every golden glass, but there are other aromas and flavours here for, following the ancient tradition that gave us fermented honey and apple juice Cyser, the Coopers of Honey Farm make several fruit-flavoured meads. Try blackberry mead where the juice of blackberries is fermented with honey, but don't forget to try the award-winning heather honey mead, which is, so Gerald Cooper says, "as near to a liqueur as you can get". The Coopers began making mead in 1999. They built the meadery and installed stainless steel vats and then, armed with a recipe, began production. It was something of a steep learning curve for they were determined to make a mead unadulterated by wine or brandy, the usual additives to bring it up to 11 or 12 per cent alcohol, which is the level required to stop it spoiling. To keep the Champagne yeast healthy and working requires a fine balancing act between honey and water that must be adjusted as the fermentation takes place. The fermented liquor is then aged in old whisky barrels, Chivas Regal for choice, for a year or more. Mead like this improves with age until it becomes something of an ambrosial mixture. The ancient Welsh made another drink with honey, although it has now passed into legend. In the 4th century Reault Hir fermented honey with yeast and barley and then distilled the sweetened liquor to make Gwirod, which is Welsh for 'water of life' - a drink that must have borne more than a passing resemblance to the Irish 'water of life' uisge beatha. The Welsh left it up to the Irish and the Scots to refine the water of life into the whisky that we know today, but during the 18th century there were several distilleries among the Welsh hills. One such in Pembrokeshire was owned by the Williams family. It closed when Evan Williams migrated to America in 1705, taking his expertise with him. It was an expertise that helped to found the Kentucky bourbon industry. Evan Williams is still a name to conjure with in Kentucky and, indeed, is the label of a very fine bourbon indeed. Whisky-making in Wales died out altogether in the 19th century when the temperance movement swept through the valleys. The last distiller, Robert Williams, died under the wheels of a horse and cart and the whisky trade died with him. So might have ended Wales' involvement with the water of life, but then in 2000 Penderyn distillery opened at the foot of the Brecon Beacons. Four years later, on St. David's day itself, Penderyn single malt whisky was launched. The malt whisky that Penderyn produces is no mere novelty for this is a smooth, complex spirit that can hold its own against Scotland's finest. Not for nothing is water of life the old name for whisky because the water that dilutes the pure spirit is crucial to its quality. It is unsurprising then to discover that Penderyn distillery sits atop an underground lake whose clear waters flow through peat ground. Penderyn uses copper pot stills and ages its spirits in used Evan Williams bourbon barrels, finishing off the ageing process in Madeira barriques. Flavours from the wooden casks seep slowly into the colourless spirit, turning it to straw and then honey and amber. As it ages, so it mellows and consumes the ghosts of spirits past. Distiller Gillian Howell oversees the casks; the young graduate from Cardiff has learnt her craft from Master Distiller Dr Jim Swan and has won accolades for Penderyn's whisky. Smooth and richMerlin Welsh Cream Liqueur is an unctuous blend of malt whisky and cream. Very few people can resist this rich liqueur and why should they? Liqueurs turn a meal into a feast to linger over. They are brought out on high days and holidays and in Wales, at least, the idea of farmhouse liqueurs steeped with the fruit of the hedgerows has never quite died out.Indeed Gwenan Ellis has made a hobby into a thriving business with Lysh liqueurs. Lysh is the Welsh word for luscious. It is pronounced "lush" but it is also slang for going out on the town and makes Welsh speakers smile - for who doesn't remember 'going out on the lysh'? Gwenan's damson gin and her sloe and almond gin follow the age-old practice of steeping sloes and damsons in gin until they give up their flavour and colour to the spirit. These lovely, sipping liquors, made in a farmhouse kitchen deep within the hills of Mid-Wales, are one of the treats of winter. Damson gin by a crackling fire cheers and warms at the same time. The wickedly sharp sloes that were taken from the hedgerows in November become mellow over time and, with the addition of a little almond essence, are transformed into a drink that is truly luscious. Vineyard heritageGwenan's liqueurs followed on from years of making hedgerow wines, those country wines of cowslip and nettle, elderflower and parsnip. Wales has its vineyards too, of course, and like mead and whisky, wine has a long history here. The Romans planted vines just as they did in neighbouring England and after the Romans the good monks carried on the tradition of wine-making in Welsh monasteries. The capital city, Cardiff, was even the somewhat surprising home of a vineyard and commercial wine-making venture in the 19th century when the Marquess of Bute grew vines on the south-facing slopes of Castell Coch.A hundred years later, in 1986, Peter and Diana Andrews planted their first vines at Llanerch, which lies in the Vale of Glamorgan. They chose mainly Germanic varieties that grow and fruit so well here and produce delicate, aromatic wines that well deserve the awards they regularly carry off. Cariad Medium Dry White is a fragrant blend of three lively German grapes: Huxelrebe, Kernling and Bacchus. This is a gossamer light wine with a hint of elderflower in its aroma. Cariad Blush Vintage Sparkling is the palest coral pink and it, too, has entrapped the flower garden for there is a hint of roses and honeysuckle in its pretty pink depths. The French grape Seyval Blanc is blended with the German Reichensteiner and then Triomphe d'Alsace is added to give it coral depths. This is sophisticated wine-making, which blends and balances flavours and delivers a truly lovely wine every time. The roots of Welsh wines may be ancient but the wine that you drink today is everything that a modern wine should be. If you are interested in wines and/or alcohol, there are two courses at Denman that might interest you:
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